Lighthouse
by Dr. Fluffmuffin
Summary: Cole is a fisherman who lives alone by the sea. Jay is a pirate who needs a place to stay on one stormy night.


**I own nothing but the story.**

* * *

Jay Walker was a sailor who had lightning in his eyes, lightning that flashed brighter than it did in the heavens.

That was the first of many things Cole noticed about his mysterious guest. Bright blue eyes that sent sparks in every direction they darted. The second thing Cole noticed was that the sailor's eyes darted a lot, alive with an energy that lit up the man's entire face.

Cole had spotted the sailor's ship on the horizon not long after the storm had begun. He must have seen the lantern Cole kept lit in his kitchen window; often his house was mistaken for the public lighthouse, and no doubt the combined experience of night and storm had sent this weary sailor towards his lonely dock.

He'd grown cold to these visitors; they came and went like the tide, never staying as long as Cole wanted, or as long as he needed. When one had been alone for as long as Cole, it became easier to send the poor souls on their way before he got a chance to know them, grow attached to them. It was why he pulled on his coat and ambled down the rocky hill before his house to meet the sailor right on the dock. Better to send him off now than later, when he wouldn't want to.

He held his coat tight as the ship steered near, the rain beating at him in sheets.

The boat was small, hardly bigger than the average cruiser, its sails ragged and build unsteady. It was a wonder it was still afloat. Cole looked for a crew, but found them absent. The ship appeared empty, a lost vessel, perhaps even a ghost ship.

A bitter smile stretched across Cole's face. Then he spotted the tense curve of someone's shoulders struggling to keep the wheel steady against waves ready to swallow them whole. He followed the shoulders to the sailor's head, where those bright blue eyes found his and demanded help.

Usually, it was better to not let the ship dock at all, that way Cole could send the sailors out right away, but those eyes needed help, and besides—his mind argued and his resolve wavered—it _was_ quite a storm. He tied the ship next to his own boat.

"I'll have you know that this is a private dock, sir," Cole had to yell to be heard over the howling winds. He spouted the same speech he'd practiced giving to sailors past, "If you're looking for the lighthouse, it's further west."

The response was a laugh, "With all due respect, I'm not sailing for another second tonight." With a grunt, the sailor leapt down onto the dock, nearly slipping on the sopping wood. Straightening, he said with a wicked smile, "Hope you don't mind a guest on this lovely evening."

Cole fixed a glare in the sailor's direction, but the smile remained. In fact, it might have grown larger upon seeing the fowl expression. He looked into those blue eyes again, then at the massive expanse of black clouds stirring the ocean behind them. He sighed.

"Come on."

Cole wasn't surprised when his guest lead the way back to his own home, marching with a confident gait that Cole lacked these days. The sailor even let himself in, throwing his coat on the rack, leaving water from both sea and sky to drip puddles onto Cole's floor. He pursed his lips before pulling the door shut behind him. It turned into a struggle; it seemed the winds were desperate to rip the door right off its hinges.

"Gotta say," the sailor sank into the kitchen chair with a wet flop, running a hand through strawberry curls. "I didn't expect a storm tonight, or else I never would have left Ouroboros."

Cole took his time hanging up his coat, doing his best not to look too long at his visitor. "You're from Ouroboros?"

"I came from there," the sailor had that grin on his face again, "I'm not from there."

Cole studied his companion, "Where are you from?"

Scarred eyebrows wiggled at him, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Cole huffed, and the sailor laughed, taking a moment to look around.

"Nice place," he said, "Got anything hard?"

"I have," Cole turned, "...water."

A chuckle. "I think I've had enough of that for a lifetime." To add emphasis, the sailor shook droplets free from the sleeve of his shirt, watching them fly. Catching the look on Cole's face, he stood again, saying with another chuckle, "Where are my manners?" He extended a calloused hand, "The name's Jay Walker, infamous pirate of Ninjago's many seas. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Cole raised a brow and looked the supposed pirate up and down, "Infamous, huh? I don't believe I've heard of you."

The pirate's—Jay's smile only widened, "Well, you don't look like someone who's heard much of anything, do you? Your lantern is the only I've seen for miles. Are you sure this isn't a lighthouse?"

Cole refused to take the hand still awaiting before him, "If you'd gone a few more miles, you would have found it."

"But I found you."

Cole wished Jay hadn't given away his name. Faces were much easier to forget if names weren't attached to them, and it didn't help that his guest's face was so distinct, either. It wasn't often Cole met someone who'd yet to drop his smile.

He took the hand. "Brookstone. Cole Brookstone. Infamous town crank," he sat down at his table, his guest following suit. "Otherwise known as the local fisherman."

Jay nodded, pleased that he'd gotten him to talk, so pleased that Cole almost regretted sharing any information at all.

"Given your build," said Jay, "I'd've thought you'd be a lumberjack or something."

He really didn't want to talk to Jay, to form any more than a shallow connection, but if he was going to start playing games, "Well, if we're judging off of appearance, here, then I'd thought you to be no more than the average sailor, lost at sea."

He couldn't help but enjoy the splash of color that tinged Jay's cheeks, and for the first time, a smile teased at his lips.

"I can assure you," said Jay, "I'm a pirate, the most feared in all of Ninjago!"

"Sure," said Cole, enjoying the rise it got out of his guest.

"I could prove it to you right now!" said the little pirate, "but because you're letting me stay here," he calmed a bit, the smirk reappearing in his face, "I'll let you keep your stuff. I'm nice like that."

"How thoughtful," Cole replied, voice dry.

Jay sniffed, looked around. Then he smirked again, "It's not as though you can prove you're a fisherman, eh? You're positive this isn't a lighthouse? Your supplies hardly match those of fishermen I've seen elsewhere."

"I have nothing to prove," said Cole, dropping his tired gaze to the table, "Though I can promise that I'm nothing more than a lonely fisherman."

Jay hummed, his smile disappearing as he looked over Cole's face. There was a long silence as Jay took the time to look back at the window, where the flickering lantern yellowed the room.

"If this isn't a lighthouse," he said, his voice quieter, "Then why do you keep that lantern lit?"

Cole looked at it as well. He'd lit that lantern every night for years. Over time, he'd stopped thinking about why he lit it, especially when it caused him pain, but all the same, "I'm..." he hesitated to say, "waiting for someone." Waiting, indeed, every night for someone who wasn't coming back.

Jay nodded. "Aren't we all?" he looked back, "Do ships come here often?"

"They never stay."

"I see."

"Do you?"

Jay nodded once more, "You got that look in your eyes. I see it in watchmen all the time."

Cole hummed, looking away, "Alright," his eyes found a cabinet next to his wood stove. Looking back into those bright blue eyes, Cole said, "I've got a bottle of cooking sherry lying around; would you like a glass?"

Jay spoke like he was barely suppressing a giggle, "How can I refuse something like _cooking_ sherry?"

Another smile crossed Cole's face, stretching muscles that hadn't been used in a long time, "Oh, shut up."

Cole kept two glasses in his home: one for him, the other for whatever sailor made it this far. He had to wipe dust out of that one.

They shared a small toast before taking their first drink. For a while, the only conversation was that between the waves and thunder rolling outside. From the sound of it, Cole thought, the storm wouldn't pass for a long time. With a distant sense of dread, he found that he actually didn't mind that fact much. Jay was, though strange, not necessarily unwelcome company. He feared what pain, however sharp or dull, he'd feel when his guest would leave.

"So," he said, running his finger around the rim of his glass, "What sort of mission is a pirate on if he misses the signs of storm in the sky?"

"I wouldn't be a true pirate if I had a plan, now, would I?" Jay stared at him sideways, his smile turning his eyes almost into a wink, "I go where the ocean takes me."

"That doesn't seem smart."

"It's worked out for me so far."

Cole had to huff at that, taking the time to pour himself some more sherry, "You do realize that you could have died tonight, right?"

"I could have," lightning flashed in his eyes again, "but I found you."

Not bad company, indeed. Cole averted his gaze, trying to force away the heat rising to his ears. If he wasn't careful, he might miss this pirate once he left.

"Do you ever get lonely? When it's just you out on the sea?"

"I'm not alone," said Jay. His smile wavered into something more subdued, "I've got Nya."

That response felt strange to Cole, but he couldn't put a name on the feeling it gave him. "Nya?"

Jay gestured to the window, "My ship. Nya is my...ship." The smile was gone, a ghost of what it was. Running another hand through his strawberry locks, Jay turned and grabbed the bottle of sherry, refilling his clouded glass.

"I see," Cole knew how people named ships. "She must be important to you."

"Oh," Jay laughed, "She was my whole world," he paused, then frowned, "She is my whole world. That's—that's why I don't get lonely. I have her with me."

Cole knew how people named ships. "Must be nice."

"It is," the sour expression on Jay's face didn't belong there, but there it stayed.

Silence overtook them again.

Cole knew how people named ships. Years of living upon the sea didn't leave him clueless, after all. That's why his own boat stayed nameless. The names he could give it were too large in number to put all on the boat, and many of those names were too important to him to even attempt to pick out the best one.

"Would you like something to eat?" Cole offered, "No offense, but you look more like the fish I dissect than you do a pirate."

"As long as I don't look like a sailor," the smile returned, "and so long as you don't feed me fish. That's all I've eaten for weeks."

"Don't worry," flashing his guest a smile, Cole opened his pantry, "I have all the finest foods, ranging from," he gestured inside, adding a little flamboyance as he did so, "bread and jam, and jam and bread."

"How exquisite!" Jay held a palm to his cheek in mock excitement, grinning the entire time he did so, "Good crank, you flatter me with such luxury!"

Cole forgot the dread as he laughed. It had been long since he'd had someone to laugh with, someone to share his bread with. Maybe it was a mistake to send the sailors away before they had a chance to dock...

"I'm not the best cook," said Cole as he offered Jay a jam covered slice, "so eat at your own risk."

"You doubt my power, do you?" Jay wiggled his eyebrows before taking an enormous bite, saying through the food, "You could be the worst cook in the world, and I can promise that anything you make will taste better than sun baked fish eyes."

"Ugh," Cole took another sip of his sherry. "It sounds awful, spending all your time on the sea."

"It's not so bad," said Jay, chewing merrily away, "To be honest, I actually like the chaos of it all. Keeps me from thinking about the past too long," his eyes went distant, "when you're out there on the sea, you gotta live in the moment. You always have to be thinking about how you're going to get through the day, whether or not you should rob that ship or plunder through that town. Difficult stuff, but nice. I enjoy it."

Cole wondered why Jay would need to keep from thinking of the past, then wondered if that was something he might need to try. Outside his mind, he shook his head. "I could never do that," he said, "I've got to have stability in my life, someplace to set down roots."

Jay looked at him, like he was inspecting fruit for bruises, "Roots huh? Why'd you become a fisherman if you want to stay on the earth?"

"It wasn't my first choice," said Cole. And that was all he said.

Years ago, his mother had gone out sailing for the day, only to not return the following evening. A week later, his father, the fisherman, asked Cole, an artist at the time, to keep the lantern in the window lit, so that when he returned with his wife by his side, he'd know where to dock. So Cole became the fisherman, taking over the duties and lighting that lantern until the day his father and mother would return home. As the days turned to years, more people came to his dock, and the list of names he lit the lantern for grew, forcing the task to weigh heavier on his heart for each night those names didn't come back.

"I suppose a little chaos would be nice," sighed Cole. He took another sip of his sherry.

Jay only looked at him. "As can a little stability," he said, "Though I firmly believe that if you have too much stability, you'll never go anywhere."

"That's the idea," Cole laughed, but the sound came not from joy. Maybe if he drank enough sherry, he would get there. He refilled his glass, stopping only when the liquid reached the brim.

Jay was still looking at him, electrocuting him with the ever present lightning in his eyes. Cole wished he would stop.

"It's rude to stare, Jay Walker."

"Pirates aren't known for their politeness, Brookstone," Jay looked away anyway, staring back at the lantern.

Cole noticed that the storm outside was dying, and he felt his heart begin to sink.

"I must say," Jay spoke, lost in his words, "For a place that isn't a lighthouse, this is certainly the nicest lighthouse I've ever been in."

Cole fingered a round knot in the wood on the table. "Really?"

"Yeah," Jay brought his hand forward, his fingers stopping just before Cole's, hovering there, "Usually I'd be kicked out after only a few minutes, people chasing me with sticks and stuff."

Cole chuckled, and Jay beamed for him. Jay did have a nice smile, he noted. It wasn't nearly as dirty as he'd expect a pirate to have.

 _It'd be nice to see a smile like that again_ , Cole thought.

"Well," he said aloud, "If you continue to be nice, like you are," he offered his companion a smile, "You'll always be welcome here."

Jay returned the warm visage, "I can't count on where the ocean will take me, but I'll look for your lantern."

The howling winds softened to a moan, and the two men stayed where they were well after the storm passed, for the rest of the night, perhaps. They stayed, swapping stories, sharing bread, sherry, and laughs, until—darn it all—Cole was too tired to keep his eyes open any longer.

He fell asleep with his head on the table, but his frown had disappeared.

* * *

The next day, the seat across from him was empty.

Cole looked for its former occupant, straining his aching neck as he looked around. The bottle of sherry was empty, both glasses turned upside down. The lantern had died sometime earlier, and the coat that the pirate had thrown so carelessly onto the rack was gone; not even the puddles remained on the floor.

Heart heavy in his chest, Cole stood, pulling his own coat on before stepping outside. The wind beat at him immediately, swaying him sideways as he scanned the grass, the dunes, the dock, the ocean.

Empty.

His boat alone knocked against his rickety, wet dock; the sand was absent of footprints; the horizon held nothing but the line between sea and grey, grey clouds blocking out the sunshine.

His companion was gone.

Jay Walker, infamous and most feared pirate of Ninjago's many seas, the man with lightning in his eyes, was gone, leaving nothing behind to show he was ever there in the first place. Once again, Cole was alone.

He sighed, adding Jay to the list of names he could give his boat, names he never forgot. Then he turned and went back inside, silently getting ready for another long day on the colorless sea.

Cole could hardly say that he regretted meeting the many people who mistook his home for a lighthouse. They were always the most interesting of folks: people who could light a fire out of anything, talk to their pet falcon as if it were another person, share stories of far away lands that held families they needed to get back to...

...people who lived in the present to keep from dwelling on the past.

Cole never regretted meeting those people; he regretted seeing them go, knowing full well that he would never see them again. Some days, the sea seemed endless, which he thought was why no one ever bothered to come back for him. That wasn't to say that he ever lost hope. Though he still went on with his life, went out to fish and came home at night, he thought of what it would be like to see a familiar boat on the horizon, one that contained his mother, his father, everyone whoever stopped by his lighthouse.

Jay Walker, infamous pirate.

Cole thought of many names when he lit the lantern, but that night, he thought of Jay, hoping that someday the pirate would dwell on the past for just a moment, long enough for him to think of coming back to Cole's lonely dock, maybe set up some roots, even small ones would do. Cole would certainly make a better meeting out of it. Maybe some cake to go with the bread, some tea for comfort, rum for pleasure, enough to let the pirate know that he was welcome.

Of course, he couldn't show that to Jay while he was out on the sea, but he could keep the lantern on for him. Yes, he could keep the lantern on for him, for all of them.

The lantern shone out on an empty sea, and Cole sat inside his kitchen, waiting.

End.

* * *

 **I have five unfinished drafts sitting in my folder, and two stories I need to update on here.**

 **And yet, I wrote this.**

 **I'm aware that I tend to disregard canon when I write sometimes, but this is probably the first time I've flat out ignored it. This was just a small little AU idea that might have gotten away from me, but I thought that it would be an interesting read, if nothing else. If you've read this far, thank you! I appreciate your interest! I wish you all a wonderful day!**


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